


Into the Mist

by minnieteez



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: ATEEZ Storyline Event, Action/Adventure, Amnesia, Ateez theory, Aurora - Freeform, Captain Kim Hongjoong, Dimension Travel, Fantasy, Gen, Memory Alteration, Memory Loss, Mist, No Romance, Time Travel, Villains, just uploading here, only adventure, the man in the fedora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:28:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25359211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minnieteez/pseuds/minnieteez
Summary: Lost in the aurora.Going through the mist.Seven boys led through by another who is unknown to them.Through the cave to the illusions, shared by none but them.Who is the man in the fedora?And who is the one stuck in time?[Previously posted to the ATEEZ Storyline Event under "Into the Mist" by yun-aurora under three separate parts]
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. The Voice

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

The ticking was incessant. He struggled against the sounds ringing throughout every fibre in his being. The static felt like torture as it banged against his skull, but he couldn’t get it to stop. His nerves felt as if they would fray and his veins would burst. _Stop, stop, stop,_ please _stop._ Please.

There was a voice.

_“Open your eyes,_ ” it whispered into the darkest crevices of his mind, sending a relieving yet terrifying sense of calm into his bones. The static became louder, but the calm overtook him.

He was closer. He was getting closer.

Despite the walls of his skull trying to keep him trapped, he decided that he would no longer be held prisoner. He struggled against himself, noiselessly but endlessly attempting to bring himself back from the edge.

The static quietened, and the sound waves shifted into the sea, waves bobbing in and out of his existence. He could feel it; he was close. He could almost see her.

_Her?_

“Open your eyes.”

With a sharp exhale, Seonghwa obeyed the command.

He was flat on his back. Above him, the sky was pitch black save for a few stars. Or was he imagining them? There was no moon. He gripped the ground in an attempt to push himself up, but he was unable to do so. The ground dissipated underneath his fingertips, and it felt like steam under his hands.

Why did he look down?

The sight was beautiful, the possibilities horrifying. Beneath him, there was nothing. A thin mist obscured the seemingly endless distance between him and the pitch-black waters, but he could still hear the waves crashing into one another into the expanse that was the ocean underneath him. Nothing else was in sight, save for the red and purple ripples that signalled the new day.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Seonghwa tried to shoot to his feet, but he slipped. Nearly slipping through, he couldn’t even scream. Just another sharp breath as his hand glided through the mist. An arm shot out and grabbed him before his body followed, and Seonghwa was graciously lifted to his feet.

In front of him was a boy that he had never seen before, but he felt curiously familiar. He was not much younger than Seonghwa himself, but he could not discern much other than that. The effect of the sun behind him meant that his face was shadowed, but Seonghwa, just for a short moment, thought that he glimpsed a shadow of a grin. Larger than what seemed humanly possible. In his hands was a watch with a golden chain, swinging idly while the boy’s hands lightly swayed to the rhythm of the water below them.

“Are you alright?” His voice ran like honey through Seonghwa’s spine, and he instantly sensed a serenity not different from before. “I’m glad I caught you in time.”

“Were you the voice?” Seonghwa’s throat was dry, swallowing so he could speak better. “The one that – ”

The boy chuckled – melodic like windchimes. “I was afraid that you were to stay asleep forever. I even tried to hypnotise you to wake up.”

It began to make sense in Seonghwa’s addled mind. “Okay. At least I’m alive. I think. Where – ”

_Open your eyes._

“Where is she?” he muttered, the pain beginning to surface yet again. Seonghwa lifted his hands to his head to massage his temples, but one of them held a silver chain, starting to rust with age. “What’s this?”

The boy shook his head. “It was in your hand when you got here. I tried to see what it was, but your hand was like steel. I couldn’t take it out.”

Seonghwa opened his left hand, and the pain shot through his fingers; he tightened his grip on it, and it strangely brought comfort to do so. “Strange.”

He then realised what the boy said and brought his hands closer to him. “Did you say… ‘when you _got_ here’? Then where – ”

Not skipping a single beat, the boy replied, “Did I? Well, it’s also confusing for me, too. I was here, and you weren’t. Next moment, you were here, as if you appeared out of thin air.”

“I did?”

The boy nodded, the shadow of his grin as wide as ever. “Do you remember anything before this?”

Seonghwa thought hard, but his memory felt like grasping at reeds in a rapid. Every single glimpse of his past swirled past him in his mind, collapsing in his hands when he tried to reach for them. “No, I can’t. Only static. Sounds. The ticking of the clock you have there. A voice.”

In a quick motion, he looked up and stepped a bit closer to the boy. “There was a voice.” As the distance between him and the boy closed, he began to notice smaller details. His hair gleamed as red as the sun behind him, and his eyes shifted through colours. A kaleidoscope of green and blue, making it easy for Seonghwa to forget his thoughts. No. He exhaled, “There was a voice.”

“Wasn’t that just me?” The boy laughed, and Seonghwa again had to focus to remember.

He shook his head frantically. “No. It wasn’t, but maybe it was? … No, it can’t have been. It sounded like a girl. Like, um…”

“Like her?”

Seonghwa lifted his gaze with urgency, his heart beating out of his chest. “Her? So there is a ‘her’? Who is she? Can you take me to her?”

The boy’s expression darkened. “I have no idea where she is, unfortunately. I only know of her existence.” Seonghwa dropped his shoulders, all anticipation diminishing. He barely heard when the boy said, “But I can help you find her.”

“You can?” Seonghwa became so excited, although his mind remained oblivious to the reason. “How? Where? Where do we go? How do we get there?”

The boy nodded, then turning around to face the sunrise. “All you have to do is follow me.”

Seonghwa nodded in reply, hardening his expression. A question abruptly rose to mind. “Shouldn’t I know your name? It feels like you know a lot about me, but I don’t know anything about you.”

“I suppose,” his voice was alight with playful interest. The boy shifted his head to look at Seonghwa. The side of his face exposed to Seonghwa was painted red with the sunrise, and the other was shaded blue and green, the colours moving slowly across his skin.

Seonghwa glanced upwards, shocked to see an array of various shades of blue and green hazing above him. He glimpsed back at the boy, who still kept the same position in relaxation. His smile widened, becoming ever more unsettling as it spanned his face. “My name?”

Seonghwa swallowed again, afraid for what he might hear.

“You can call me Rising Sun.”

Before Seonghwa could reply, the cloud that they had been standing on began to fade under his feet. He fell backwards in disbelief as Rising Sun watched him from above.

“And you just have to follow me into the mist.”

As if his words were a trigger, Seonghwa fell through the mist with heightening speed. Tumbling through the air, he searched the air for the mist, but all he could see was the sun to the east, and the aurora above.

Gripping the chain in his hands like a lifeline, Seonghwa braced himself for the darkness of the waves.


	2. The Cave

He had trouble keeping his eyes open. “Where am I?”

Yunho lifted himself to his feet, subconsciously searching his body for any blood or injuries. Not severely surprised to find that there were none, he realised with a start what had just occurred. The mist. The falling. The ocean. The sun. _Rising Sun._

He called out, “Hello? Rising Sun? Are you here?” He then trailed off when he observed his surroundings, which were unlike anything he had previously seen.

The cave was a deep, warm brown, but it was unlike any cave that Yunho had ever heard of. The space contained an aura of summer, and Yunho imagined that there was a constant light breeze carrying a flowery scent across his path. It also contained more light than he thought possible, but – as he turned forward and back – the entrance was nowhere to be seen. Lastly, he peeked to the ceiling, and it echoed the glimmers of blue and green that had towered over him when he was on the mist. “Is this where he is?”

Yunho ventured deeper into the cave, sensing whispers alongside him. Of whom, he would never know for sure. The voices that accompanied him through the darkness were strangely comforting, but there was a constant sensation of something drawing him forward, like a hand around his neck pulling him towards the end. _Will there be light here somewhere?_

Entering a large cavern within the cave, he gasped. The beauty within there was almost too much for his senses to comprehend. It emitted an iridescent blue light from all sides, but most of it came from a shimmery pool in the center of the hollow. Instinct told Yunho to submerge himself in its depths, but he had enough self-control about him to shake off the powerful inclination. He waded through trees of purple ribbon-like leaves and white bark, feeling an intense calm and almost contentment as he got closer to the pool.

He glimpsed into the depths. Six other boys stared back at him through his reflection, none that he recognised on sight. Scrutinising their features, most of which were younger than him, Yunho decided that he really did not know any of the boys, and his heart sunk in his chest. _Guess he really_ isn’t _here._ As he turned to discover more of the cave, the waters seemed to ripple, and another boy fleeted across his vision – red hair and a devilish grin, transforming swiftly into an expression of fear and hopelessness.

“Hong – ” Yunho cried, dropping to his knees, his hands wading through the water to find his brother. The figures in the reflection disappeared, their voices shrieking with agony while Yunho searched through their bodies to find his lost one. The red-haired boy was the only one to remain, his grin growing wider but also switching with an expression of utter pain too quickly for Yunho to even see his face. He reached out as far as possible, and the tip of his finger reached the bottom of the pool. His face nearly touching the water, Yunho was nearly blinded by a sudden flash of light that emerged from the depths, pushing him until he was flat on his back. Gasping deeply for breath, he gritted his teeth in response to the pain in his chest.

“Did you find what you’re looking for?” A voice said from above him, and Yunho was lifted by his shoulders, an unknown force raising him to his feet. He spun around, stunned to see Rising Sun in front of him as if he had materialised from thin air. “You should not have gone so close to the water,” he said with slight concern, and then his tone turned rather menacing, his grin widening without Yunho noticing. “You could have drowned.”

Yunho furrowed his eyebrows in anger. “You.”

“Yes, I am me,” Rising Sun smiled, making Yunho more frustrated.

“No. What I mean is that _you_ told me that he was here. _Where is he?_ ”

He laughed, one that changed from melodic to malicious. “Oh, I _never_ said that he was _here._ ”

Yunho could hear the blood in his ears, and it sounded like his heart was breaking right in front of him. “What?”

The boy-devil in front of him stepped closer to Yunho, and it took all his effort not to strangle him on the spot. The thought of that brought his hand to his own neck, feeling irritated skin from earlier. His eyes seemingly gleamed red when he said, “I said that you have to follow me, remember?”

All thoughts that previously occupied Yunho’s mind were consumed by a desire to follow Rising Sun, much more powerful than any of his senses. His body was not his own, and Yunho could not, nor would not, force himself to climb out of the boy’s grasp. The two walked through the cavern, travelling past all sorts of beautiful and strange sights. The flowers bloomed purple and red at their feet and on the trees, while the branches remained devoid of colour. As Yunho walked, he heard the voices clambering alongside him. _Were they trying to reach him too?_

It had felt like only a moment before the boy stopped in front of Yunho. There was a solitary tree with stark white branches in this part of the cave. A single purple leaf hung from a branch like a ribbon, begging to be untied. Rising Sun held onto the lowest-hanging branch and stood still, looking towards the north end of the cave. “It’s there.”

Yunho blinked and rubbed his eyes firmly. The cave behind him glowed blue and green, but ahead of them was a white light that had not been there before. It had almost seemed like Rising Sun had spoken it into existence. “There?”

“What you seek is through there.”

Wordlessly, Yunho began to rush towards the end of the tunnel, but he swiftly landed face-first in the ground. He looked up and saw Rising Sun, who then held his chin in his hands. “Did you not hear me?” He chuckled again, every laugh becoming more threatening than the last. “You have to _follow_ me to find what you’ve lost.”

“Fine,” Yunho replied, pushing himself up again. He tightened his fists and looked at the exit. “So, what are you waiting?”

The boy tutted while shaking his head in mock disappointment. “ _Yunho,_ what’s the rush? We can make it a game! I’ll call it… ‘Follow the Leader’.”

“This is a game to you?” Yunho’s voice dripped with disgust.

“Of course! What else would it be?” The boy turned his head back to face Yunho again, and his eyes were filled with nothing but curiosity. “Just because you lost something doesn’t mean I can’t have fun.”

Yunho did not even have time to let the shivers run down his spine before Rising Sun shouted, “Here we go!”

He led, and Yunho followed.

The entrance drew closer, and Yunho felt the presence of others surrounding him on all sides. _Are those the boys from before? What are_ they _looking for?_ The light became brighter with every step, and Yunho shielded his eyes.

_“Open your eyes.”_

“To the illusion,” the voices whispered in his mind.


	3. The Hourglass

First, it was falling. And then it was nothing at all.

Beyond the light was nothing discernible for a while, and he followed the back of the Rising Sun boy for what seemed like aeons. The whispers and screams continued as they travelled, and Yeosang could only gaze at the sky for company. Strangely enough, the sky was dark, devoid of any stars or anything that he would recognise it by. He searched it for the constellations that he once learned as a child, but there was only the blue and green ribbons of the aurora that accompanied him from the cave, dusted with mist underneath that obscured his vision. _Is that why I can’t see the stars? The mist?_

After a while, Yeosang grew tired of seeking something that would not appear, forcing himself to lower his head and watch the ground. _If it were possible to call it that._ The mist had progressed further than he had realised, encircling him, Rising Sun and everything else in near sight. If Yeosang focused for only a moment, he could hear the waves crashing against one another beneath him, feeling the sun burning across the horizon – the darkness contrasting the heat.

If he had focused all his body on the mist, he would be able to sense that he was not alone. There were six other boys around him, under the same influence and sensations that he was experiencing. Each of them were following their own journeys, but Yeosang could only feel his own. It was unusual to not harbour anxiety, but Yeosang had not felt this intense calm since he was a child.

“Familiar to you?” the boy piped up ahead of Yeosang, still facing forward.

“What?”

Rising Sun had laughter in his voice while saying, “The feelings, emotions, experiences. This is familiar to you, right?”

“But how did you – ”

The boy turned around, pulling his right hand out of his pocket, silver tinkling as he moved. “Feel it.” Yeosang was about to interject before Rising Sun continued, “Put your hand out. You’ll be quite surprised.”

Not knowing what would happen, Yeosang mindlessly lifted his arm and grasped for the mist as far as he could reach. Expecting to close his hand over nothing, he recoiled in shock. _Trees?_ “Are we back in the cave?”

Rising Sun touched his arm and guided it to the left. “Don’t you remember, Yeosang?”

In a flash, it rushed back to him. The lamppost. The road. The sidewalk. “That night. The night I – ”

“The night you ran away from home,” Rising Sun confirmed. He spun Yeosang around to face him, their faces too close for comfort, but Yeosang couldn’t feel his breath against his own. “It was an important night for you. Why?”

Yeosang spluttered, unable to think coherently, “I – I wanted to be my dream, follow my ambitions, but – ”

“The adults.” There was contempt in the boy’s voice.

“Yeah,” he replied, sagging his shoulders. “They said that I didn’t have a future. I was nothing.”

“But?”

Yeosang stared into Rising Sun’s eyes with intense disappointment. “I couldn’t survive without them.”

Rising Sun laughed again and said, “You could, and you _can._ ”

Yeosang blinked, looking in the other’s eyes for a sign that this is a lie. _This is madness._ Rising Sun’s eyes held only true belief, like he was only capable of speaking the truth. Yeosang stepped back, unable to contain his disbelief. “Then that means – that means we’re…”

Yeosang breathed deeply. “Time. We’re going back in time, aren’t we?”

Rising Sun stepped towards Yeosang, and he moved back in return. The older boy’s words were calm, but his eyes were crazed with possibilities. “You’re different from the others, Yeosang. The others wanted things that were never theirs, but _you?_ You wanted to fix what had happened.”

“But – ”

“Well, that’s less work for me, anyway,” Rising Sun continued lightly, and – without another word – he faced ahead and went on his way.

The two spent what felt like an eternity in silence, and Yeosang was facing an internal battle between disbelief and horror. _Going back in time? Back to_ that _place? No way, I need to get out of here._ He glanced around, searching for a solution, but the mist seemed to have become more powerful the more they travelled back. Glaring at Rising Sun’s back, he wondered if he could force him into letting him out. _But if he can travel back in time, what else is he capable of?_

He remembered. The silver. _What is it? A key? A weapon?_ Thinking of the possibilities, Yeosang decided that he _had_ to figure out what it was, and he had to get out. “So, you can travel back in time? That’s impressive.”

Rising Sun chuckled and shrugged. “To you, it may seem so. It’s not that arduous of a process. You just need to have the knowledge.”

Yeosang muttered, “Or the equipment.”

“Did you say something?”

Yeosang pretended not to answer, and he slowly lifted his hand and reached into the mist. He felt a tree branch and held onto it, hoping that Rising Sun didn’t turn around at that moment. He bit his lip when Rising Sun asked, “Did you stop?”

“No? No, of course not.”

Within a second, Rising Sun was at his side, and Yeosang was surprised to see annoyance in his expression. “The mist and I are connected. If you’re going to lie to me,” he paused, and a maddened grin crossed the bot's face. "Then you have to do better.”

Glancing down for a second, Yeosang plastered fear on his face before grabbing the silver object from the boy’s pocket while sliding his foot out of the mist, as well. Both boys were silent, deciding what to do next. He twiddled the piece in his fingers without looking at it, skimming across the chain links, still staring at Rising Sun. “A chain?”

“Give that back, and we’ll forget about this.”

“ _This_ holds your power?” Yeosang grabbed the chain with both hands, pulling it until taut. “It’s so _fragile._ ”

Rising Sun’s eyes burned red with anger. “Yeosang.”

Blankly, Yeosang replied, “You’re unhinged. And so is this,” and pulled two sides of the chain with all his might, breaking the chain into pieces. “I’m going to travel through time until I can figure out how to stop you. This is _wrong_.” Holding a large chunk of it in his hand, he threw it into the mist and watched it disappear. Yeosang only glanced back at Rising Sun before throwing himself into it, too.

If Yeosang had looked back, he would have spotted Rising Sun falling to his knees, seemingly unperturbed by what had happened. The boy combed the ground, picking up what remained of the silver chain links. He chuckled to himself, “Well, this is unexpected.”

He clutched the chain in his hand until it drew blood, gritting his teeth. Rising Sun looked up, and a boy with Yeosang’s features dressed in all black, a fedora and chains stared back. “Get the rest of that chain back. I don’t care what you need to do or where you need to go. Just make sure he doesn’t get to the others.”

The air around Rising Sun glitched for a moment, and a boy with terror etched into his face darted his eyes around before the vision was replaced with Rising Sun again. He covered his eyes, wincing with pain. “Make sure none of them get suspicious, and hurry. The further the chain links go, the weaker this appearance and power becomes.”

The figure wordlessly nodded, and then he dashed into the mist, leaving Rising Sun behind. The boy raised himself to his feet, weak but determined to take the other six boys through. For a moment, in his weakness, the figure transformed into a boy with pure green eyes, his red hair even starker than the one that had possessed him. He could only whisper, “Yeosang, hurry,” before Rising Sun took over, his hair hazel, clad with chained earrings and a menacing grin.


	4. The Illusion

His eyes fluttered open, the details of his dream flying away along with his sleepiness. For a couple of minutes, he laid in bed, trying to remember everything that had occurred in his dream, but the details slipped away from him the more he focused, like holding sand in one’s hand and watching it slide into the ocean. He nearly drifted away again, turning on his side to face the bedroom window, watching the sun lazily rise into the sky.

A peaceful noise erupted into the room, and San groaned, annoyed despite the pleasant sound of waterfalls. He picked up his phone and turned off his alarm, seeing the time – 8:45. He blinked and smiled, before realising with a start that it _is_ , in fact, 8:45. “Why didn’t anyone wake me?” He shouted at random, tossing open his covers and rushing to the bathroom to get ready.

As he rushed out of the bathroom, two faces stared at him from the kitchen, both of whom dressed and ready for the day. “San, come on!” One of them shouted back, chuckling despite sounding harsh. “We have to leave now if we’re going to meet them in time!”

“Yeah, yeah,” San brushed it off, hopping into the kitchen with one shoe on, attempting to push the other one onto his foot. Nearly falling into one of the boys, he glanced up at him, smiling innocently. “I’m done?”

Retaliating with a joking punch on the arm, the boy asked, “You finally ready, princess?”

“Okay, Mingi,” he replied, standing up to square up, a smile clearly visible on his face. “You can call me names, but I draw the line at ‘Princess’.”

The other boy walked towards them, carrying a small container of yoghurt. “Here, you need some energy for today. Also, you are a princess if you need that much beauty sleep.”

“Thanks, man,” he replied. The three of them sauntered out of their apartment, bickering through the corridors and elevator on which way to get to the station. “Why don’t we just walk?” San piped up while walking through the entrance, breathing in the fresh air.

He suddenly felt a blast of cold air pass over him, while Seonghwa answered, “Well, that’s stupid.”

“What?” San felt a tinge of sadness, but it was strangely deadened in comparison to his normal reaction. “I’m stupid?”

Seonghwa abruptly turned to him, shaking his head vigorously. “No! Not at all, I was looking at my phone. You know I would never say that?”

“Of course,” San shook his head, waiting to pass the car, smiling to himself. _Of course, these are my_ friends. _They would never say something like that._ He then glances at Seonghwa again, having noticed a change that he didn’t see before. “Is that a blonde streak in your hair? Looks cool.”

Seonghwa grabbed at a piece of his fringe, one of three pieces of his hair that had turned blonde, San swore, only a few minutes ago. “Oh, this? A few members at the Drama department did this to me last night. You didn’t notice?”

Furrowing his eyebrows, San replied, “No, I don’t think so.”

Mingi laughed and stepped between the boys, throwing his arms over the two’s shoulders. “That’s enough wondering about silly things. We need to rush if we’re gonna get to the station in time to meet Wooyoung and Yeosang.”

San considered this for a second before breaking from the two boys, running ahead of them. “Okay, then last one there buys me dinner.”

“You – ” Seonghwa began before giving up and running towards him , while Mingi already sprinted a couple of meters, and clearly the competition was on. San sprinted for about ten seconds, and he had entered the park near the station before he had slowed to a jog. Laughing aloud, he gave himself time to rest and watched his friends get closer. _Is this what happiness feels like?_

Sitting on a bench, he waited for a few minutes and serenely looked at his surroundings. He breathed in, but he spluttered out, surprised by how dry the air felt against his throat. Coughing into his elbow, he looked up and was surprised to see a guy dressed in all-black staring back at him, chains covering his jacket and mask, a hat covering most of his eyes. The man widened his eyes when noticing that San saw him, but he remains frozen in place. Too confused to respond, San doesn’t even notice that Mingi caught up to him.

Mingi glanced down at him before looking in the direction of the masked man in confusion. “What are you looking at?”

San was surprised at Mingi’s statement and looked up at him. “What do you mean? He’s right th – ” He paused, realising that the man had vanished. He scanned the park in disbelief. _How did that guy just disappear?_ “You know what? Nevermind.” Smiling at Mingi, he lifted himself from the bench, noticing thar Seonghwa was a few metres away, as well. “Let’s just get to the station. Don’t want to miss our train.”

\----

The five of them had a section of the train to themselves that afternoon, and the majority of that time had been spent in pure excitement, and San was bursting at the seams from joy. Wooyoung and Yeosang were just as glad to see them, but it took Mingi nearly falling out of the carriage while the door was closing for the fun to start.

“Congrats, bro!” Wooyoung said to San as soon as he entered, giving him a huge clap on the back. “We have to look out, guys. Here’s a new genius in our midst.”

“What?”

“Don’t be humble,” Seonghwa replied, sitting down. “Being first in the year is really cool, San. Well done.”

He blinked, trying to comprehend it. “First? In the year? _Me?”_ He tried his best, but the memories would not surface, leaving him extremely confused. “Uh, I don’t remember that.”

The others looked at him in slight concern but didn’t further pry. San sat down a bit away from them with his chin in his palms, trying to grasp at what few memories he could recollect. _I, I can’t remember almost_ anything. _This –_

The train halted, and it shook violently, instilling the passengers with fear. San darted his eyes around the carriage, watching as pieces of metal broke off the ceiling, support beams and plastic handles crashing to the ground. Dodging the debris, he looked up at the sky, expecting to see blue skies. The sight of mist obscuring green and blue ribbons dashed across a pitch-black sky. _If it_ is _night, then why aren’t there any stars?_

San wanted to run to the other side of the carriage to see if his friends were okay, but mist concealed them. He shouted out, “Guys, are you okay? Mingi? Seonghwa?”

The mist intensified, becoming unstable and rushing towards him. San tightly shut his eyes and fell down, attempting to block the voices from his ears.

_The mist is too weak. The illusion cannot be held._

_He is too weak to break through himself._

_Why can’t he do this?_

_Why is he so_ useless?

The last sentence echoed in his mind, needles pricking his thoughts until he cried out, “Stop!”, jumping to his feet in the train carriage. He faced the window as he stood, horrified to notice that the scenery had changed again to blue skies, but it felt different. He looked down at his chest and saw a blue hoodie instead of the shirt he wore earlier. The space had suddenly tightened around him, and he realised where he was. _The car. That day. I –_

He sat down on the cushioned seating, covering his face to hide his sobs. _How did I get back here? Maybe I am supposed to just stay this way forever?_

San felt another blast of cold air and looked up to where the window of the car _should_ have been, but it was replaced with a white mist that obscured everything behind it. A faint voice called from the other side, “San, grab the chain!”

“The – ” Before he could finish, a hand clutching a silver chain thrusted through the mist. Next came a face that was familiar to him. “Wooyoung? You’re real?”

Wooyoung was visibly annoyed at San, but he answered nonetheless. “Yes, but not _here._ I’ll explain when we’re out. This place is about to collapse. If you get trapped with it, we can’t save him and _he’ll win._ ”

“Who?”

“The man in the fedora, but _not_ him. He’s taken someone.”

San’s blood was running cold. “Who did he take?”

“I don’t know anymore,” Wooyoung muttered, grabbing San’s hand and tightening it around the silver chain. It burned San’s hand while it took him to the other side of the mist.


	5. The Chain

Out of breath, the boy stopped, collapsing to the ground. “This isn’t right. This _isn’t_ how it’s supposed to be.” Pulling part of a silver chain out of his pocket, wanting to throw it and never finding it again, he snapped, “It all started with this thing. I never should have stolen you.”

Mingi scanned his immediate surrounding to ensure that he was hidden properly. Before giving it a second thought, he dived into an alley way and scrambled behind a pile of cardboard boxes. Having seen the gun in his assailant’s hands, he was determined to avoid its bullets for as long as possible. A silver car rolled by, and a couple of men jumped out of the car that had been following him for the past few days. Mingi dared not speak nor move a muscle, knowing that single sound could be the last thing he could do. What felt like an eternity was only mere seconds, and then the goons went back to the car, shutting the doors and cursing, and they drove off.

He waited for a few more seconds before slowly raising to his feet, keeping his head lowered and his legs bent in case he need to hide or run. Soon realising that he chose one of the worst places to hide, Mingi kicked the stones under his feet. _This place is completely empty, and I’m going to have to get to the road to hide somewhere else, anyway._ He punched the wall behind him, eyes shut and tears threatening to stream down his face. A hollow, metallic sound erupted from the wall, and Mingi, confused, examined the wall, realising that it’s a door. Smiling for the first time that day, he dropped to his knees, scrabbling for the edge with his fingers, lifting it when he got a proper grip. Lifting it enough that he could roll under it, Mingi tumbled into his new hiding spot.

Getting to his feet and dusting himself off, Mingi examined the space. _A warehouse, huh? Well, at least I’ll have space for the next while._ It was a two-story building with a bunch of machinery in one corner, but nothing occupied the center, and the area was covered with dust. _It must have been abandoned a while ago._ He spotted a staircase towards the back of the warehouse, leading to the upper floor – a storeroom? Management room? Ming rushed to the other side, climbing the stairs and skipping two steps at a time. He dashed into the room, not knowing what to expect but was disappointed anyway.

The space was what could have been an office, small desks and chairs littering the area with a larger one at the back for group work, a mirror lining the end of the office. Nothing remained: no laptops, equipment, fridge, not even a water dispenser. Exhausted and disappointed, Mingi trudged to the mirror, wondering if he had any wounds that he was not aware of. As he walked towards it, Mingi was too tired to notice that the room had shifted to reflect his own, glitching with every step he took. The mirror reflected how he felt, bruises and a small cut on his forehead. He lifted his hand to touch the wound, but – after it reached the gash – his was not the only reflection in the mirror.

A boy with his eyes stared back at him, wearing black clothes, a chained mask and a black hat. Holding an hourglass in his gloved hands, the boy _seemed_ like he was smiling under the mask, but it was cruel instead of kind. Mingi glared into the mirror, confused, also noticing the room constantly transforming behind him. _My room? Why – how did I –_

Mingi didn’t even have enough time to say, “Huh?” before the mirror burst, the force pushing him down. Glass cut his face and hands, while Mingi rolled to avoid his attacker. Using one of the desks for support, he lifted himself to his feet and shouted, “What do you _want_ for me?”

The boy merely raised his hand without a word, his eyes fixated on Mingi’s pocket. He instinctively stuck his fist in his pocket, protecting the chain. He didn’t know why it was so important, but – now that this person wanted it – he was determined to keep it. Darting his eyes around, trying to think of the possibilities and a plan, his hopes faded. _This guy will obviously kill me if I try to run._

Keeping his posture, not wanting to give too much away, and then he rushed to the mirror, shielding his face while shoving his hand into the cavity. A pair of hands grabbed him from the other side, pulling him through. At this point, Mingi was unsure if he was leaping away from danger or towards it.

Opening his eyes, Mingi immediately realised where he was. “The mist,” he whispered, turning to the person who brought him here, obscured with red and purple vapour. “Why are we here? And _why_ did you send me to that awful place?” His voice grew more aggressive as he continued.

The person, who was about the same age as Mingi, lifted his hands in surrender. “First of all, _I_ didn’t send you here. That was Rising Sun,” he said, extending one of his hands in greeting. “I’m Yeosang.”

Hearing Rising Sun’s name opened a floodgate in Mingi’s memory. “But, if you’re not him, how could you get here by yourself? And _how_ could you get through to where I was?”

Yeosang nodded at the chain that was now hanging from Mingi’s pocket. “The same way you did,” he answered, lifting a replica piece from a string hanging from his neck. “I just had more power than you.” Mingi just stared at him in pure confusion, and Yeosang sighed. “Let’s meet the others, and I’ll tell you everything.”

The two of them walked without Mingi knowing of their destination, him silent while Yeosang explained what he thought was the cause for all this. He listened, the story more ridiculous than he ever could have imagined, but his theory was the only thing that could have explained all of this.

“So,” Mingi attempted to summarise what Yeosang told him, them slowing down slightly. “Rising Sun is actually a normal boy like us.”

“One that got sucked into the illusion.”

“And he’s too weak to get back here and save himself?” Yeosang nodded at his question. “But, if he’s too weak, but has most of the chain, how can _you_ get through here so easily?”

Yeosang sighed. “Apparently, I was one of the most powerful of us that went through. According to Rising Sun, anyway. He said that, because I merely wanted to go back in time, it didn’t use a lot of the mist itself like most of us did.”

“So, what we were experiencing wasn’t real? It was – ”

“An illusion, yeah,” Yeosang finished, his eyes filled with thought. “Most of us got trapped really well, but then it started weakening the more of the chain separated. You took enough to make the illusion weak enough for me to come through, but then Rising Sun must have sent someone after me to get the chain I have. They found you first, unfortunately.”

Mingi tried to process it all. “At least you got to me in time.” He looked around, the mist becoming deeper and cloudier than ever. “Where are we supposed to be going, anyway?”

“The others are all in their own illusions that are separate from the real world,” Yeosang explained, fiddling with his chain links. “Experiences that are different to the ones we already did – things like, ‘What would have happened if I did this?’ and so on. We have one more person to bring out of his illusion, and then we can go after Rising Sun.” Yeosang walked a few more metres forward, his eyes closed with a hand in the mist surrounding them. “We just needed to get far away enough from your illusion to get to his. This should be the area around his timeline.”

Mingi crossed his arms, mentally exhausted from this. “This honestly makes me so confused, so I’m not going to think too hard about it.”

“Understandable,” Yeosang laughed. “But you broke out of the illusion pretty well on your own. That took a lot of focus and energy, too.” He looked at Mingi and gave him a thumbs up, lifting the atmosphere slightly, making Mingi grin. Yeosang then turned to the mist, his hand still outside. “If you want to come through, you’re going to have to grab onto something, too.”

Mingi followed Yeosang’s arm, grasping for something through the vapour. He found a pole, grabbed it with all his might and said, “Okay, got it.” He subconsciously held his breath while the two of them walked through the mist.


	6. The Journey

There’s a disturbance over there,” he said, nodding over to the far side of the small lake. He watched the sky change, becoming red and purple and obscured with mist for a moment, it changing back without any consequence. “Do you think it’s Yeosang?”

Seonghwa, lying down in the grass next to Wooyoung, brings himself to his feet, clutching his chain tightly in his hand. “If it’s another one of Rising Sun’s minions, I _swear_ that I’ll get him this time.”

“You already got earlier, right?” San tilted his head at Seonghwa, worry etched into his expression. “You were the first one to break through. You were the one that got us here.”

“You don’t understand, San,” he answered with slight anger in his voice. Wooyoung stood up in response, read to act in case something escalated. “ _I_ was the first one to see Rising Sun, and _I_ fell for it. If I acted properly, then the situation wouldn’t be as bad. Things would be the way they were supposed to be, and everyone would have had the things that the illusions showed us.”

San dipped his head, but his eyes were still on Wooyoung, watching for his reaction. _Just because I broke through by myself does_ not _mean that I’m suddenly capable._ “Guys, calm down,” he argued, looking first at Seonghwa, then turning to San. “Rising Sun fooled us all. Yeosang outsmarted him and got part of the chain. Seonghwa, you have a duplicate, meaning that you have a lot of power. Even, you, San – keeping the illusion up weakened it long enough for people to break out and find you.”

The two boys looked both surprised and ashamed by his scolding, intensely focusing on other things to let Wooyoung calm down. Instead, he sat down and asked, “So, Seonghwa – did you figure out what your illusion means?”

The sky turned black with green and blue mist, and the grass underneath their feet became concrete surrounded by roads lining apartment blocks. Seonghwa sighed before answering, “Look, my illusion was just me looking out on the beach.”

“You said that Rising Sun said that he would take you to ‘her’,” San disclosed, looking at Seonghwa for confirmation. “Did you find her?”

He shook his head. “The illusion couldn’t even do that. Looking back at it, she didn’t even have a face, and then she turned out to be someone in a mask and chains with an hourglass in her hands,” he groaned before burying his head in his arms.

“An hourglass? Maybe Yunho will know something when he gets back,” Wooyoung wondered aloud, pondering on what this could mean. _So, time? Are we going back in time? Does it mean we only have limited amount of time? How long? What does it mean? Where must we go?_ He was still muttering to himself by the time Yeosang and the other boy reached them. “Yeosang, you’re back,” he said, somewhat wary of the person Yeosang brought with him. “I’m Wooyoung, and you are – ”

“Mingi!” San rushed past him, nearly knocking the new person to the ground in excitement. “You’re actually alive and not in the mist!”

Mingi, with an apprehensive expression, patted San’s back before he said, “Was I supposed to be?” He looked around and then noticed the sky momentarily turn bright blue before returning to the aurora that covered them in the mist. “I must have been in your illusion. Sorry, but I don’t recognise you.”

Throwing his arm over San’s shoulders, Wooyoung said, “He’s San, and the guy over there is Seonghwa,” pointing over his shoulder to Seonghwa, who was lost in thought over the illusion. “We’re just waiting for Yunho, and then we’re going to find the last person we need to.”

“Who’s that?” Mingi raised his eyebrows.

Shrugging, he answered, “Not a clue. He might be the person that Yunho was looking for in _his_ illusion.” There was a large pause, everyone pondering what should happen next. “You don’t have anything that could help us, right?”

Yeosang, from slightly behind Mingi, lifted his chain from around his neck. “He got a piece of the chain, and a large part of it, too. Unfortunately, that means that the masked guys will be even more determined to come after us.”

“How will they – ” Before Mingi could finish, there was an indistinct shouting from the trees behind them. Wooyoung spun around, ready to fight whatever comes their way. Seonghwa was by his side in a moment, looking all too eager to fight back, as well. It took all of Wooyoung’s constraint to prevent himself from charging while his brain recognised Yunho through the trees.

He crossed his arms. “Yunho, you better – ”

“No time,” Yunho panted, not willing to stop running when he reached the group of boys. “The guys in the masks. They have him surrounded.”

Wooyoung was already running alongside Yunho, the six boys on their heels, when he said, “Your brother?”

Yunho tightened his lips but refused to slow down. “No, but he knows who he is. He could help us find him. And when we find _him_ \- ”

“We find Rising Sun and end this.”

By the time the boys reached the place where Yunho found the boy, the ground and the sky were cracking, more pieces being replaced with parts of the mist. “It almost looks like this place is more mist than illusion,” Yeosang observed, reaching for a piece of broken concrete for it to disappear under his hand.

“It’s too weak. If he had to send so many masked people here _and_ this was the last illusion to be made,” Wooyoung said, looking for the boy Yunho was talking about. “This place must be most like this person’s reality.” He turned to Yunho. “Where is he?”

Yunho pointed towards the other side of the road, indicating to the far side of a basketball court. “Over there.” If Wooyoung squinted, he could discern an outline of a boy sitting on the bench, his head lowered.

The six boys, following his direction, began to walk towards him. The closer he walked, Wooyoung felt more drawn to it. Soon, it felt as if he had no control over his body, and all he could do was watch as his muscles controlled his mind. He could only move his eyes, and – after glancing around at the horrified expressions of the boys matching his own – he realised that he was not the only one. As they walked, Wooyoung heard them. _The voices._

_Stay in the illusion._

_Open your eyes._

_Precious._

_Follow me into the mist._

His eyes burned, broken images of the mist mixed with fake memories searing Wooyoung’s mind. He could feel the ground crumbling under his feet, the concrete resembling the softness of the mist. Every moment became unpredictable, and Wooyoung hoped that reality would stay long enough to get to the boy before the masked people who looked like him got him first.

“Wooyoung!” He heard a voice faintly shout his name. Turning his head as if he were underwater, Yeosang was next to him, placing part of the silver chain in his hand. “Hold this as hard as you can.”

Wooyoung nodded, clutching the chain in his hand like a lifeline. It burned his hand, as well, and Wooyoung bit his lip to mask the pain, eventually bringing a metallic taste to his mouth. He forced himself to look up, and the others were not in much better shape.

_I will_ not _give up again. I will_ not _be weak._ He chanted the mantra in his mind – it was the only thought that could penetrate through the blinding pain of the metal in his hands.

He could only watch through blurry eyes while Yunho faintly shouted, “Jongho!” Wooyoung could not even hear the boy’s response before he collapsed.


	7. The Sun

Attempting to grab the ground, he realised with a start. _We’re back in the mist._

He scrambled to his feet, nearly falling over in the process, but a hand luckily grabbed his upper arm before he crashed to the ground again. “You okay?” Allowing Jongho to use him as physical support, the boy continued, “I’m Seonghwa.”

Jongho smiled, unsure whether to merely thank him, or to get straight to the point. “Uh, thanks. I’m Jongho. Nice to meet you?”

“Under the circumstances, I’m not too sure,” another voice said from not too far away. For the first time since returning, he realised that all the boys that had approached him in his reality were sitting or standing in a circle, all the same level of confused and shocked. “We might be out of the illusions, but we aren’t any closer to figuring out where Rising Sun or who you guys are searching for are.”

Jongho searched for the voice, with a stir recognising it. “Yunho?”

“How do you know me?” Yunho stood up, apprehensive yet curious. “I don’t know who you are.”

Jongho’s expression darkened. “I suppose you wouldn’t. We weren’t close enough back then.”

“What are you _talking_ about?”

“Hongjoong.” The name alone drew the blood out of Yunho’s face. “He’s the one I’m looking for.”

Yunho was in front of him in a flash, his height becoming intimidating against the younger boy. “How do you know him, and why are you looking for him? Were you the last one to see him? Why did he go missing?”

Another boy came over to the two, stepping between them. “Fighting will get us nowhere. The point is that you guys are looking for the same person,” the boy turned his head to Jongho and flashed him a tense grin. “I’m Wooyoung – can you repeat who this person is? Hongjoong?”

He breathed deeply before replying, “Yeah. The two of them used to live next door to me when I was younger. Nothing happened back then, but they moved away. I had something to say to him, but I was too stupid, young and immature to do it when I had the chance.”

Yunho snapped his head towards Jongho. “Did you – ”

“No, but I knew,” Jongho gritted his teeth. “I want to apologise to him.”

Yunho’s stance was ready to pounce before the statement, and he loosened his muscles, stepping back to express a truce between the two. One of the boys that was still part of the original circle cleared his voice and said, “Okay, now that that’s out of the way, how about we actually try to _find_ this Hongjoong?”

The three of them nodded and sat down in their original positions. “Yunho, Jongho – do you remember the last time you saw Hongjoong?” Yeosang addressed them, while looking at the group at large. His face glimmered blue and green, the aurora hanging low over them. “What does he look like? Anything we can look out for?”

Yunho answered before Jongho, who merely shrugged. “In the pool. In the cave.”

“You saw him in the cave?” The boy next to Seonghwa asked, clearly shocked. “Then why did you go through the mist in the first place?”

“Rising Sun told me that I needed to go through to find him. It was like the pool was a barrier between the two of us – I couldn’t get to him, and he was in too much pain to break through to me.” Yunho’s expression resembled stone, but it was obvious that he was torn up about his brother. “He looked like the last time I saw him – red hair, green eyes.”

Hearing a sharp gasp from next to him, Jongho turned to Seonghwa, his face as pale as a ghost. “I saw him.”

“What?” One of the boys – Mingi, the only one that was in Jongho’s short illusion – questioned. “You _saw_ Hongjoong?”

“Where?” Yunho and Yeosang asked in unison, and it felt like the investigation was finally getting somewhere.

Seonghwa answered shakily, “When we first met, I met Rising Sun, but he shifted in front of me. One of his appearances was with red hair and green and blue eyes. He had a chain,” he paused, taking out his silver chain that was in his pocket. “The gold version of this one.”

The group was silent before Seonghwa continued, “He told me that he would help me find her.”

“But who is she?” The boy next to Seonghwa asked, his chin in his palm.

Seonghwa snapped, “I don’t _know,_ San,” before taking a deep breath. “In my illusion, I was alone on the beach. No one else was there. I didn’t find _her_ or whoever I was looking for.”

Wooyoung interrupted before Seonghwa could continue. “Well, with whatever is going on, it’s obvious that these chains are important.” He took his section out of his pocket and scrutinised it closely. “Maybe we can check if anything is written on the links?”

Jongho nodded, opening his hand. He only examined his link that Mingi gave him for a second before it shone blue, an even brighter blue than the ribbons of the aurora above them. The blue light emitted from every person’s section of the chains, and it soon became blinding. Everyone fell back, and they only tried to focus a few seconds later. Jongho realised that he no longer held the chain link and searched around his general vicinity in it before noticing the hourglass in the middle of the circle.

The seven of them merely stared at the hourglass, wary for what it could do to them. Yeosang eventually plucked up the courage to reach for it, picking it up slowly, looking almost afraid to touch it. The hourglass was initially wooden with blue sand on the inside, from what Jongho could tell, before it transformed into a white metal edged one with white translucent sand. It constantly switched between the two designs for a minute or so before changing to its dark wood with blue sand.

“That’s the hourglass from the mirror,” Mingi said, realising what he saw. “But the people in the masks had it. Why is there one here?”

San replied, “If the masked guys are controlled by Rising Sun, then this must tell them where to go, then – ”

“That means that Rising Sun – Hongjoong – must be where the other ones are,” Yeosang completed the theory, sharing a smile with San. He examined the glass closer, and then he blinked and looked even closer. “Why is there a boat in the glass?”

The rest of the boys hurried to Yeosang, all trying to have a close examination of the hourglass. “That’s not a boat – it’s a ship,” Jongho noted, slightly confused. “It looks a bit like a pirate ship.”

Seonghwa suddenly straightened, and then examined the hourglass again. “The sand. The smell. It was like my illusion.” He motioned to Yeosang, and he complied, handing over the hourglass. “The white sand – it’s the same as the beach in my illusion.”

A theory erupted in Jongho’s mind, but he shook it away. _No, that_ can’t _be._ He decided to say it anyway, even though he knew that it was just too ridiculous to be considered. “Seonghwa, what if the ‘she’ you’re looking for wasn’t a girl?”

Everyone turned to Jongho, and he continued. “What if you saw Hongjoong in your illusion too?”

“But there wasn’t anyone _in_ my illusion.”

Yeosang thought of something, and his eyes lit up. “What if you didn’t see _him,_ but you saw _where_ he was?” The others waited, and he continued, “Your illusion was by the sea. You were looking into the horizon, right?” Seonghwa nodded, which allowed Yeosang to say, “You weren’t looking at _him._ Not directly, anyway. You were looking for this.”

The ship inside of the hourglass rose a little higher in its sand sea, and the boys simultaneously thought the same idea in unison. Wooyoung whispered, “Hongjoong’s in that ship.”

A light emitted from the sand inside of the hourglass, and wind blew from all directions above them, and Jongho could hear it whistling in his ears. The sand began falling through the cavity in the hourglass into the bottom half, and it ripped itself from Seonghwa’s grasp. The hourglass bobbed in the air ahead of them, making the air around it crisp and clearer than any other section of the mist. It began floating towards east, opening the mist wherever it travelled.

“It’s on a timer,” San said, pushing a hand through his hair. “We should probably go.”

“Or else, who knows what will happen to Hongjoong?”

That sentence alone was enough to get the boys sprinting after the hourglass, its speed increasing with theirs. The mist began to dissipate behind them, and the light of the aurora above shone brighter than Jongho had ever seen. The bloodred sun that he had seen in the beginning was rising slowly into the sky.

_I was too young before, but I_ won’t _let you go this time, Hongjoong._


	8. The Boy in the Mist

The power of Rising Sun was temporarily reduced to the voice in Hongjoong’s mind, but that made the tormenting even worse. It kept him in a half-awake state, and he wasn’t sure if he was awake or dreaming.

_They’ll never find you._

“I can hear your thoughts too,” he coughed, too weak to speak louder. “They have the hourglass. Your fedora men failed you.”

_Oh, Hongjoong. I wish I was as naïve as you. Why do you think I let them_ get _the hourglass? They couldn’t have done it without Seonghwa’s chain._

Hongjoong could only open his eyes in realisation, horror seeping into his mind.

_The longer they hold onto what power was contained in the chain and the hourglass,_ Rising Sun’s voice took a playful pause, tormenting Hongjoong even more. _The less control they have, and the more power_ I _do. See?_

Before him, Hongjoong could see a vision of the boys rushing through the mist, a pack of boys running to his rescue. At the back of the group was Seonghwa, his hair becoming blonder with every passing moment, holding an hourglass in his hand before it disappeared. The Rising Sun version of Seonghwa smiled, the vision burning into Hongjoong’s mind before it disappeared.

Hongjoong could no longer stay awake, his body collapsing from pain.

“Hurry,” he muttered in his sleep, pleading that his dream of freedom would become reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Congrats (and thank you so much) if you reached the end! I love you all so much! Sorry that this was abrupt and awful - since it was for the storyline event, I wrote in about four days, so my sleep deprivation is to blame.
> 
> (If you are waiting for my ATEEZ uni AU, please be patient - my brain is still broken after this and exams)
> 
> Hope y'all are good - love you! 
> 
> (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone! This is a reupload of my entry to the ATEEZ storyline event, and it's a alternate theory to some of the events in the ATEEZ cinematic universe (which is very extensive and confusing). If you guys have any theories or thoughts about the storyline event and the prompts, let me know!


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